Space by Olga Fradina
Tucked into the storied bones of an early 20th-century building in Kyiv’s historic Podil district, Space by Olga Fradina offers a deeply restorative setting, a grounded studio devoted to physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Formerly a residential apartment inside a structure once home to a church candle factory, the 4-metre-high interior had been carved into an irregular patchwork of rooms and mezzanines. But where confusion once prevailed, clarity now resides. The interior has been pared back to its essential structure, a framework for stillness, air, and light.
“From the very beginning, the idea was to clear away the noise and open up a place where healing could happen in every sense,” shares Fradina.
Initiated by Kateryna Bakhirka – a multidisciplinary creative and founder of the Deep Forest Foundation – the project is shaped by personal convictions and global experience. Having spent years immersed in the traditions of South America and Asia, Bakhirka envisioned a calm, enveloping environment to house diverse healing modalities: yoga, qigong, meditation, reiki, acupuncture. A space not just for movement, but for stillness.
Though the project commenced just before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it continued through disruptions, blackouts, and air-raid alerts. In the summer of 2023, the studio quietly opened its doors – a gesture of resilience as much as repose.
“Creating a space for healing during a time of war might seem paradoxical,” says Fradina. “But it felt essential, a reminder to care for the internal when the external is out of control.”
The spatial choreography is modest but deliberate. A small entrance hall leads to a locker area, a room for group classes, two massage rooms, a tea lounge, and a bathroom complete with a soaking tub for restorative treatments. A muted material palette – microcement, plaster, wood, copper, and vintage brick – lends a calm tactility to every surface.
The group practice room is defined by light. Flanked by two load-bearing walls, it offers a serene envelope for movement. A single mirrored wall opens the volume, while the opposite wall features a hand-painted gradient, a soft echo of the evening sky. “The black rugs on the pale floor are a nod to my background as a graphic artist,” notes Fradina.
In contrast, the massage rooms are dark and cocooning, introspective spaces wrapped in shadow. A brass niche holds oils and tools on a rough metal worktop, while a graphic by Ukrainian artist Nikita Vlasov anchors the wall in quiet symbolism. Tree silhouettes, hand-painted on the upper walls and corridors, subtly reference the linework of Japanese woodblock prints.
The tea lounge is a place for gathering and unwinding, composed in hushed tones and natural textures. A three-metre solid wood table by Ukrainian workshop Staritska Maysternya sits at its centre, grounded by vintage bricks reclaimed from a former house. The shelves hold eclectic artefacts – small relics of Bakhirka’s travels across the Amazon and Southeast Asia – each object telling a quiet story of connection and craft.
“My favourite way to work is through texture and tone,” Fradina explains. “Even in monochrome, there’s so much depth to explore, especially when light interacts with material.”
At once spare and tactile, Space is a vessel for reconnection – a home for community, ritual, and restoration. Amid the uncertainty of a fractured world, it offers a steady anchor: inward, grounding, and profoundly human.
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